Gilbert Gonzalez (fifth from left) meeting with former braceros and bracero family members at Empalme in Sonora, Mexico, site of an old bracero processing center.Photo by Sebastian Hernandez

Gilbert Gonzalez, professor in the School of Social Sciences at UC Irvine, was selected for a 2006 UC MEXUS faculty grant to undertake the initial fieldwork for a documentary film on the Bracero Program, which employed hundreds of thousands Mexican contract workers in the U.S. from 1942 to 1964. The project, which focused on interviewing former braceros as well as the wives and children they left behind during contract periods, provides insight into the transnational nature of the Program. In the course of two years the project filmed over 100 hours of interviews, work sites, old bracero living quarters, processing centers in Mexico and on the border, and sending villages in Mexico.
The documentary was completed in 2010 and awarded the Cine Latino Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. Additional information about the film and filmmakers can be viewed at http://harvestofloneliness.com/. Dr. Gonzalez can be contacted at gggonzal@uci.edu.